I Am A Better Educator

In part 2, I will provide a critical reflection on my own teaching practice during recent placement by making detailed connections to an appended lesson plan.

In summary, this course has really educated my view of being a teacher as well as being able to interact with today’s diverse and fluctuating educational setting. Therefore, the discussions were very good ways in understanding how

Taking what happened in the interactions and decided what category of class management was being utilized out of our possibilities. Also, how Junie B. reacted to each style of teaching whether is was a positive or negative interactions and whether it had a positive or negative reaction correlating with it. After deciding what our topic was going to deal with we decided to pull examples from real life that also illustrated our main ideas, so, the group also pulled examples of classroom management from bulletin boards seen in classrooms at the schools Raymond F Brandes and Creston that included clip system of disciplinary action, expectations of reading comprehension in grade levels, and a smiley to frown face disciplinary system.

This independent reading report focuses on Tools For Teachers by Fred Jones. This book is excellent at describing the nuts and bolts of teaching. It is a refreshing balance to the theoretical works of Vygotsky and Piaget, and it is a solid start for people who are focused on the tangible, practical aspects of what to do at 8am on their first day of classes, when the “Zone of Proximal Development” just doesn’t seem helpful enough. Dr. Jones, a psychologist from UCLA, based his methods off of countless hours of observing natural teachers. When he’d interview these naturals and asked them why they were successful, he found they weren’t able to articulate the tangible things they were doing. This book is Dr. Jones’ best shot at this articulation. It’s a practitioner’s manual; backed up by evidence, but not overloaded with jargon. It is the best educational book I have ever read. In this report, I will describe how Dr. Jones defines classroom management, detail the primary tenants of his system, discuss the differences and similarities of Dr. Jones’ system to the research and ideas we’ve learned about in class, and present how the ideas from Tools For Teaching have practical application in my own future classroom.

By doing Module 1 of this course I had opportunity to think about my career as a teacher. In order for me to improve learners’ learning I have to create for them appropriate environment using different teaching strategies in which every learner feels respected and safe. Learners need to know that learning has a purpose and what they are learning it is relevant to their lives. Also it is important to provide them with feedback regarding their progress on what they are trying to achieve, how far they are from the goal that was set. And how to achieve all I have to keep on trying new things and improving teaching skills. The actual teaching, classes I attended for this course gave me opportunity to better myself as a teacher. I learned about teaching principals from our teaching classes, later applied my knowledge in my actual teaching practice and also learned about teaching ideas through the web. From all these I understood that my development as a teacher should never end because teaching is a part of a life-long

The leadership team discussed specific outcomes that they want accomplish, taking into consideration the issues they want to address. After careful deliberation, they decided that they wanted to create a process of implementation with a feedback loop in which teachers and staff discuss each lesson. Documentation would be written down of what worked and what did not work and modifications could be done for the upcoming lessons. This could be accomplished by setting time for staff to meet and discuss lesson implementation, areas of strength and weakness. After discussion the staff would discuss and change the lesson plans to meet the needs of classroom. By crating this process of implementation staff can course correct

The Washington County School District organizational strategies that are in place for teachers has increased academic student growth in my classes. Throughout year, I participate in professional development activities that enhance my teaching skills and increase student learning. During the summer, I collaborate with district data analysis and colleagues to disaggregate student data, correctly identify the lowest benchmarks that students scored based on FSA performance and Washington County School District Progress Monitoring Program (three assessments from the previous year). After which, we develop an "Order of Instruction” for content areas based on data from various student measures that have been assimilated throughout the school year.

As instructional leaders, we are responsible for the academic growth of our students. It is my duty to foster a culture of learning. This is best accomplished by being a lifelong learner. Rather than focusing on the instruction of the teacher to the student, an instructional leader within a culture for learning focuses on the students by asking questions such as, “What was learned? What is the evidence that my students learned?” (DuFour, Richard and Robert J. Marzano. “High-Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership.” How Teachers Learn 66.5. (2009): 62-68) Rather than the principal observing a teacher on instructional style, within a culture of learning, that school leader is directing her observations on ascertaining what the students learned, how they learned it and how they know what to do if they have not yet learned it. In looking at the traditional method of teacher observation, if a principal finds the instruction of a teacher is lacking and helps him improve this instruction, this does not guarantee that the learning will also improve. (DuFour, Richard and Robert J. Marzano. “High-Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership.” How Teachers Learn 66.5. (2009): 62-68) Rather, the instructional leader of the school should be asking such questions as, “What are the students doing? Are they engaged in their learning

Section II. Teaching Practice Question 1: The Washington County School District organizational strategies in place for teachers has increased academic student growth in my classes. Throughout the year, I participate in professional development activities that enhance my teaching skills and increase student learning. I collaborate with data analysis and colleagues to disaggregate student data, correctly identify the lowest benchmarks that students scored based on FSA performance and Washington County School District Progress Monitoring Program (three assessments from the previous year). For this reason, we develop an "Order of Instruction" for content areas based on data from various student measures that have been assimilated throughout the school year. In like manner, I meet with vertical/grade level teams during preplanning to gather resources and organize materials by units, critique online resources to incorporate new technology into daily lesson objectives. Prior to students entering my classroom on the first day, I locate my class roster in FOCUS, print out all student IEP 's and 504 's and incorporate that information into my data notebook. As a team, we meet weekly to design lesson plans, create informal/formal assessments, and collaborate with another to ensure that standards-based instruction is being implemented in our classroom. After students start the new school year and complete their baseline assessments, I meet with colleagues, data analysis and Washington

Duncan, Arne. “A Call to Teaching.” U.S. Department of Education, 9 Oct. 2009. Web. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017. Print.

What I found most valuable was learning about the three parts Instructional Triangle, in chapter one, “How to Plan for Instruction.” The first part is the goal, “What do you want your students to know or to be able to do?” Another part of the triangle is Assessment, “What evidence of success will you accept? The final part of the triangle is “What will you do to help them learn it? Do it?” I learned, “How Planning is a key component in effective instruction…Effective teachers know what they are teaching and why.”

In the observations of the classrooms, we had a chance to observe a lesson that had the correct supplies. In this classroom setting, a large number of the students appeared to be engaged and were able to answer questions easily. The students interacted better in the class when the supplies were present because they were able to have visual and hands on references to engage the students. We also observed a classroom that did not have the supplies needed and found that a large percentage of the students were not engaged, and a few had their heads down on their desks. In this class, when the teacher asked questions only three students participated and the rest did not. During both classroom visits we made sure to pick similar teachers that were teaching the same subject with similar lesson plans. We began to see the effect of not having supplies versus having a well-supplied classroom. We then realized that the school 's process for financial expenditures is not well aligned with students ' needs and was affecting the end product, which provides the engagement and educational needs of the students.

In reading the article, “Managing Your Classroom for Success,” I was incredibly excited to know that the article was written by Rosemary and Harry Wong. In my previous research on classroom management, I learned that Harry Wong was one of the most sought after speakers on teacher effectiveness.

The issue with educational preparation programs is the lack of experience that is offered in the classroom. Specifically, classroom management strategies and support in teaching. For instance, student teaching experience does help with classroom management, but only a fraction of the amount it entails to run a classroom. Also, research states that teaching is simply not a process that consists of the application of codified techniques and principles that can be developed in the laboratory or learned in the university class. The critical skills are acquired through experience (Walsh, 2001, p. 42). There is a need for organizations to be prepared to seek ways to improve educators’ instructional delivery, administrative procedures, and support services in the classroom setting.

determining if teaching was effective and to determine how appropriate modifications and adaptations can be made to improve future instruction (Dreyer, 2014:7).